The state Department of Education has released information about how it expects to distribute $609 million in stimulus funding to schools around the state, and the WW-P school district has been allocated $2.039 million of that money.##M:[more]##
The figures, released by the state DOE on its website, have been earmarked for special education programs covered by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) at Title 1 programs. Of the $2.039 million set aside for the WW-P district, the website states that $73,”789 of that money will be earmarked for pre-school funding.
The funding was provided by the federal government under the American Recovery and Reinvestmant Act (ARRA), and New Jersey received the $609 million specifically for school funding. The allocations for each district are set by formulas in federal statutes, and the uses of the funds are also determined by federal statutes, regulations and guidance, state a press release on the state DOE website.
The United States Department of Education, however, is requiring all districts to submit applications for the Title I and IDEA funds and receive approval from DOE before the money is disbursed. The applications will be made available in the summer for money to be used between September, 2009 and September, 2011, the website stated. However, there will be a streamlined application for districts that plan to use the money for student programs or staff professional development during the summer of 2009 or preschool for 2009-2010, the website also stated.
While Princeton Regional School and the Montgomery school district each were allotted about half of what WW-P was, Assistant Superintendent of Finance Larry Shanok says he thinks the allocations were based on enrollment numbers, which would make the figures proportionate.
However, Shanok says that the regulations and criteria for which a school district can apply to receive that earmarked funding are unclear. How the district is to use the funding is also needs clarification, says Shanok who suspects that at least some of the funding might go toward professional development in education.
Funding for professional development is already in place for every area of the curriculum in the WW-P school district, including in special education, Shanok says. If the funding were to be used toward professional development, it would be welcomed, but he said he wondered how the school district could use the more than $2 million allocated in the stimulus package solely toward professional development in that one area.
What officials do know is that the funding is supposed to be delegated over a two-year period. The details of that are also vague, Shanok says, and it leaves school districts in a bind because it is unclear whether that funding could be used to offset some of the costs associated with the programs the district already has planned and in place, or whether it is to be used to implement new programs. If the latter is the case, those programs would have to be ended once the funding stops in two years.
If the district were to be able to use the funding to offset some of the programs already accounted for in the budget and plans for the 2009-’10 school year, for example, the district could use the money it saved for the tax relief segment of the school budget. But, the details are still unclear.
“They say, ‘We want this to be a fiscal stimulus, but we don’t want you spending it on something you’re already doing, and we don’t want you to spend it on something you don’t want to do in a few years,’” said Shanok. “I’m hoping that with time, we’ll have clarification, and we’ll use it to help support our programs, and be as cost-effective while providing the necessary services we have in the past.”
